People
Ben Kingsley
Acting · follow into films and chains
Biography
Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Grammy Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, as well as nominations for four Primetime Emmy Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. Kingsley was appointed Knight Bachelor in 2002 for services to the British film industry. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2010 and received the Britannia Award in 2013. Born to an English mother and an Indian Gujarati father with roots in Jamnagar, Kingsley began his career in theatre, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967 and spending the next 15 years appearing mainly on stage. His starring roles included productions of As You Like It (his West End debut for the company at the Aldwych Theatre in 1967), Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Also known for his television roles, he received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for his performances in Murderers Among Us: The Simon Wiesenthal Story (1989), Joseph (1995), Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001), and Mrs. Harris (2006). In film, Kingsley is known for his starring role as Mahatma Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982), for which he subsequently won the Academy Award for Best Actor and BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. For his portrayal of Itzhak Stern in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993), he received a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role nomination. He was Oscar-nominated for Bugsy (1990), Sexy Beast (2000), and House of Sand and Fog (2003). His other notable films include Maurice (1987), Sneakers (1992), Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), Death and the Maiden (1994), Twelfth Night (1996), Tuck Everlasting (2002), Elegy (2008), Shutter Island (2010), and Hugo (2011). Kingsley played the character of Trevor Slattery in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, appearing in Iron Man 3 (2013), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), and the upcoming Disney+ series Wonder Man. He also acted in the blockbusters Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) and Ender's Game (2013). Kingsley lent his voice to the films The Boxtrolls (2014) and The Jungle Book (2016).
Notable films
Where to start
Highlights from credits and KinoChain journeys.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Appears in a KinoChain journey
Schindler's List
As Itzhak Stern
Maurice
Appears in a KinoChain journey
Shutter Island
As Dr. Cawley
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
As Trevor Slattery
Iron Man 3
As Trevor Slattery
The Jungle Book
As Bagheera (voice)
Exodus: Gods and Kings
As Nun
Chains
KinoChain journeys
Public chains that pass through their films — or name them as a bridge.
The University of British Cinema
From the dreaming spires of Cambridge to the redbrick campuses of the provinces, a journey through the British university film and what it reveals about class,...
8 films
The Weight of the Cape: Inheriting a Legacy You Never Asked For
Before the multiverse had a use for her, Kara Zor-El's first outing wasn't framed as destiny, it was framed as a mistake to fix. She loses the Omegahedron, the...
8 films
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Related people
Collaborators & neighbours
Acted
Deep Water
2026 · Rich
The Thursday Murder Club
2025 · Ibrahim
Jules
2023 · Milton Robinson
Dalíland
2022 · Dalí
Robin Williams: Laugh Until You Cry
2022 · Self
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
2021 · Trevor Slattery
Night Hunter
2019 · Cooper
All or Nothing: Manchester City
2018 · Narrator (voice)
Spielberg
2017 · Self
Security
2017 · Charlie
The Jungle Book
2016 · Bagheera (voice)
Robot Overlords
2015 · Robin Smythe
Der Medicus
2014 · Ibn Sina
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
2014 · Merenkahre
Exodus: Gods and Kings
2014 · Nun
The Boxtrolls
2014 · Snatcher (voice)
The Physician
2013 · Ibn Sina
Iron Man 3
2013 · Trevor Slattery
The Dictator
2012 · Tamir
Hugo
2011 · Georges Méliès
Winston Churchill: Walking with Destiny
2010 · Narrator
Shutter Island
2010 · Dr. Cawley
The Wackness
2008 · Dr. Squires
I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life & Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal
2007 · Self
The Last Legion
2007 · Ambrosinus
Lucky Number Slevin
2006 · The Rabbi
House of Sand and Fog
2003 · Behrani
Unlikely Heroes
2003 · Narrator
Spooky House
2002 · The Great Zamboni
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
2001 · Specialist (voice)
Sexy Beast
2001 · Don Logan
Rules of Engagement
2000 · Ambassador Mourain
Twelfth Night
1996 · Feste
Death and the Maiden
1994 · Dr. Roberto Miranda
Liberation
1994 · Narrator (voice)
Schindler's List
1993 · Itzhak Stern
Sneakers
1992 · Cosmo
Bugsy
1991 · Meyer Lansky
Maurice
1987 · Lasker-Jones
Gandhi
1982 · Mahatma Gandhi